Spencer Brown key in Buffalo Bills offensive line rankings on PFF

This offseason the Buffalo Bills didn’t make many changes what is expected to be the starting offensive line. The big change is the addition of Rodger Saffold, who is coming off a Pro Bowl season with the Titans and is expected to be one of the starting guards.

While the Bills have relatively the same offensive line outside of Saffold, the hope is that this group will be improved over last season. The reason is that the Bills are expected to enter the season with Spencer Brown and Ryan Bates as starters at right tackle and right guard respectively.

Brown didn’t step into the starting lineup until Week 4 and Bates didn’t become the start until the final weeks of the regular season as Buffalo was dealing with a number of injuries at guard. However, the Bills saw enough and matched the four-year contract offer made by the Chicago Bears to bring back the restricted free agent.

Spencer Brown is key to the success of the Buffalo Bills offensive line in 2022 according to Pro Football Focus

Recently, Michael Renner at Pro Football Focus put together his rankings of each offensive line in the league, and the Bills were ranked only 20th in the league in the tier titled “One Good Tackle”.

"This line really hinges on Spencer Brown’s development. He certainly exceeded expectations when forced to play 846 snaps as a project tackle taken in the third round last year. Exceeding expectations, however, still resulted in a 49.1 pass-blocking grade. That should change in 2022 to help the Bills’ offensive line take a step forward."

As Renner notes, Spencer Brown was viewed as a project when the Bills drafted him in the third round. He certainly exceeded expectations and played well on the field even if it resulted in the pass-blocking grade that Pro Football Focus gave him. However, his strength really was in run blocking, and among rookie offensive tackles, he ranked fifth with a grade of 70.6 according to Pro Football Focus.

This is one ranking that it is very easy to see the Buffalo Bills exceeding pretty easily this coming season with improvements from Brown and a full season of Ryan Bates and Rodger Saffold at guard.